


Bargaining

by telliefan (captainamergirl)



Category: All My Children
Genre: Family, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-19
Updated: 2016-05-19
Packaged: 2018-06-09 09:45:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 639
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6900895
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/captainamergirl/pseuds/telliefan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What if Jackson had been the one shot on the AMC 1.0 cliffhanger? How would Greenlee respond to her father's life-threatening injury?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bargaining

**Bargaining**  
  
 _“I have lost so many people already. Please don’t be the next one to leave me,”_   she murmured as she stared at him through the glass partition where David Hayward and a bunch of other physicians were working on him, trying to save his life. If he died ... Well, she couldn’t even think about it. She wouldn’t. He was strong, he was brave, he was ... Jackson. He was her father. He would survive this if she had anything to say about it.  
  
She heard a machine wail its plaintive death cry and she jammed her tiny palms against the glass, screaming _“Save Jackson! Save my father!”_  
  
XoXoXo  
  
Later, she found herself sitting at his bedside. He looked so pale and drawn. So un-Jackson like. He had survived the surgery but David had warned her, there was no guarantee that he was going to survive the night.  
  
“Hey,” she said as she reached out and grasped his large hand in her much tinier one. “You’re looking ... Dreadful. I am just being honest here... But you don’t look like you. You need to get strong and then wake up, okay? Right now I’m thinking about how many opportunities we’ve missed to spend time together. How many times we could have gone to a ball game - yes, a ball game; can imagine me there -” she chuckled softly - “or just had long, meaningful talks where we talked about you instead of just me, me, me. I am not even going to ask you to wake up for me. No, you should wake up for Reggie and Lily, and even Erica. Yes, Erica. She loves you. She has been pacing the waiting room anxiously the whole time and I even let her see you first. I am trying to not be so selfish but I don’t like to share.” She chuckled again. “I love you, Jackson. Did I ever say that enough? Because its true. Roger never felt like a father but you, you just do. Just wake up, okay? Because everyone is going to miss you if ... if... I can’t even say it. You _will_ wake up. You have to.”  
  
She looked up at the ceiling. “And if anyone’s listening up there, I will go to a Phillies game if Jackson makes it through this. I swear.”  
  
XoXoXo  
  
Greenlee fell asleep in the stiff, hard-backed chair holding her father’s hand and no one had the heart to wake her up. Everyone thought she would be waking up to find Jackson was dead but come morning, Greenlee was instead awakened by a gentle tugging on her fingers. Her eyes shot open and she stared at Jackson looking up at her with those wide gray eyes of his.  
  
“Hey, dad,” she murmured. “Am I dreaming? This seems to be good to be true.... Let me go find a doctor.”  
  
She leaned over and kissed his brow lightly before darting out of the room and waving down Angie Hubbard. Angie rushed in and was soon marveling that Jackson was alive and on the way to making a full recovery.  
  
Later, Greenlee was sitting in his room again and holding his hand. “I’m so glad you’re going to be alright.”  
  
“Me too,” Jackson said.  
  
“Hey I made a promise while you were asleep,” Greenlee said. “I think they call it bargaining.”  
  
“Oh?” He smiled at her.  
  
“Yes. I said to whomever was listening that if you woke up, I would make sure we spent more time together. I even swore I would go to a Phillies game with you.”  
  
Jackson chuckled. “You - at a baseball game?”  
  
“I know,” Greenlee laughed as well. “But I would have promised anything to get you to wake up.”  
  
“I am holding you to that,” Jackson said and squeezed her hand. “I love you, Greenlee.”  
  
“I love you too...Dad.”  
  
FINIS


End file.
